Paladins as DPS
This article has information on how to play paladins as DPS. Paladin DPS Abilities * Retribution Aura: An Aura that deals 62 Holy Damage to anyone that attacks you. With the proper talents, also increases damage done by 1/2% of all affected players, increases damage done by Retribution Aura by 25/50%, and increases melee, ranged, and spell haste rating by 1/2/3%. * Heart of the Crusader: A talent that causes all three judgement spells to apply a debuff that increases critical strike chance by 3% against the judged enemy. * Seal of Command: Gives your melee attacks a chance to deal a large amount of holy damage. The main damage seal for most PvP Retribution paladins. Judgement of Command is also the main damage nuke for PvP Retribution Paladins. *Seal of Blood/Seal of the Martyr: A DPS seal that causes your attacks to extra holy damage proportional to your weapon damage, but also causes minor backlash damage. In a raid PvE situation Seal of Blood/Seal of the Martyr is generally more effective than Seal of Command. * Crusader Strike: An instant melee attack that deals 110% Weapon Damage. * Consecration: Consecrates the ground for 8 seconds, dealing Holy damage to anyone who walks into it. As of Patch 3.0, Mana is no longer an issue for Retribution Paladins, as well as largely increased spell damage, so Consecration is a very large DPS addition. * Exorcism: A large damage nuke against demon and undead targets on a long cooldown. * Hammer of Wrath: An instant-cast ranged finishing move. Resets your swing timer. * Divine Storm: An instant attack that deals Holy damage to your target and two nearby targets. Heals random party/raid members for 20% of the damage dealt. Paladin DPS Rotation * 1. Retribution Aura * 2. Judgement of Light (for PvE)/Judgement of Justice (For PvP) * 3. Seal of the Martyr/Seal of Blood * 4. Crusader Strike * 5. Divine Storm * 6. Crusader Strike * 7. Exorcism (if undead or demon) * 8. Continue using Crusader Strike, Divine Storm, and Judgement of Light/Judgement of Justice Alternate (possibly) DPS Rotation I slightly disagree with the above rotation, though it may just be I'm reading it wrong. * 1. Retribution Aura on, obviously * 2. Seal of the Martyr/Seal of Command(Martyr for PVE and Command for PVP) * 3. Judgement of Light/Judgement of Wisdom or Judgement of Justice (Light/Wisdom really depends on your raid group, as groups high in ranged dps do not benefit much from judgement of light, and benefit greatly from wisdom. Also discuss with any other retribution paladins in the raid if there are any who will judge what.) * 4. Exorcism if available * 5. Crusader Strike * 6. Divine Storm * 7. Continue as cooldowns come up--With 2/2 Improved Judgement it always seems to work out that they come back up with near-perfect timing. Let it be noted that the above rotation is meant for single-target DPS fights only(especially bosses). If you are not having mana issues while DPSing, Consecration is an easy way to add quite a large chunk of DPS even versus single targets (currently with ~3k attack power, it adds approximately 240 DPS for me)and should be used when other abilities are cooling down. For trash pulls with multiple mobs, it will most likely help to switch up Divine Storm and Crusader Strike and replace Exorcism with Holy Wrath if applicable. Consecration is especially desirable in large pulls unless your group is relying heavily on CC and does not pull the mobs away from CC targets. Weapon Selection For Seal of Command Paladins * A slow 2-handed weapon is usually a Paladin's primary weapon. This will increase the chance for Seal of Command to proc on each swing and cause the procs to deal more damage. * Due to the nature of Seal of Command and Crusader Strike, a slower weapon with a high top end damage will nearly always be superior to a faster weapon with a lower damage range. * A 1-handed weapon can be used to push back an opponent's cast in PvP situations but will lower your DPS significantly. For Seal of the Martyr/Seal of Blood Paladins *Almost identical to Seal of Command Paladins. Faster weapons are acceptable, however, if they have somewhat better buffs than your current weapon. Melee Stats * Your melee hit rating base should be 142 ideally, however with the removal of precision this is hardly practical. Keeping the old 95 Hit Rating is sufficient to maintain DPS, however, Hit Rating gear should remain a very high priority. For equal leveled players in PvP only 79 total hit rating (5%) is required to be hit capped. * Attack Power (typically from Strength) is your primary DPS stat. * Your melee critical strike chance needs to be at least 25% to maintain Vengeance stacks nearly all the time. After that point critical strike rating is not as much of an increase to personal DPS as straight Attack Power. Base Stats * Strength: 5 points in Divine Strength in protection increases strength by 15%, making this your most important DPS stat. * Melee Crit: Critical strike rating increases the chances of applying and keeping Vengeance stacks (increasing all damage, obviously, by 15%). Pure critical rating will be easier with itemization, since 22 critical strike rating provides 1% critical chance in comparison to 25 agility. Melee critical strike chance is not as much of a pure damage increase as Attack Power. Many high end raiding Retribution Paladins will will only have enough critical strike chance to become "capped" (enough to maintain 3 stacks of Vengeance through an entire boss fight) and then simply stack additional Attack Power. * Intellect: Though not a primary stat, Intellect increases the Paladin's mana pool, allowing for more longevity and the ability to use high cost spells such as Consecration and Exorcism.* * Spell Damage: With the addition of Sheath of Light the need for Spell Power has been abolished. Category:Guides Category:Paladins